[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 18793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I would like 5 minutes to 
address the body.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentlewoman from 
Wisconsin is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I, like other Members of this 
body, am very reluctant to use inflammatory rhetoric, and it is very, 
very inflammatory to label what is going on in Darfur as genocide. It 
is inflammatory, it is accusatory, it indicts the government. And, 
moreover, Mr. Speaker it pricks our humanity, because if we were to not 
deny that it were genocide, there is no way that we could just sit back 
and do nothing. If we deny that it is genocide, it is just easy to walk 
away and say that what is going on there is somebody else's business.
  Well, the international legal definition of the crime of genocide is 
found in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment 
of Genocide. It describes the two elements that constitutes genocide 
as, one, a mental element attempting to destroy in whole or in part a 
national, ethnic, racial, or religious group; and, two, a physical 
element, which includes five types of violence, Mr. Speaker: killing of 
members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members 
of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life 
calculated to bring about the physical destruction in whole or in part; 
imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and 
forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
  Now, if you look at what is happening in Darfur, if you pull off the 
blinders, you will find that more than 400,000 people have been killed 
by the government forces and militias from 2003 to the present time, 
and the killing continues.
  Bodily and mental harm certainly has occurred as young women and 
girls are raped by soldiers and militias. Such physical and mental harm 
will continue to affect these women and families for generations to 
come.
  Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost to the deliberate 
destruction of homes, crops, water resources; physical displacement of 
over 2 million people, resulting in conditions of famine, disease, 
epidemics in both inaccessible areas and in camps for displaced people; 
the killing of pregnant women; the use of rape as a weapon of genocide, 
as many perpetrators have been arrogant enough to state that their 
intent is to change the ethnic identity of the child conceived by rape.
  2004, July, this House and the Senate declared that the atrocities in 
Darfur constitute genocide. 2004, September, then-Secretary of State 
Colin Powell announced that the killing, raping, and other atrocities 
occurring in Darfur was genocide. But 2 years and much empty talk 
later, the violence continues, Mr. Speaker.
  The U.N. and humanitarian organizations continue to report a 
continuing deteriorating situation. Twenty-six thousand Sudan Armed 
Forces are headed to the Darfur region for a major offensive against 
people. Humanitarian groups have remained concerned that their ability 
to continue to provide aid to over 2 million displaced victims are 
insecure as the violence continues.
  The time for debating this genocide or declaring it genocide is over. 
It is time to do something now.
  There are only two options, Mr. Speaker, as I leave to go back to my 
seat. One would be to extend the African Union peacekeeping force 
mandate; or, two, to send in the U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan, even 
though the Sudanese Government refuses to accept them.
  Of course, Mr. Speaker, there is one other option: To continue to do 
nothing. For evil to triumph, it is only necessary that good men do 
nothing.

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